12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

Tiriri, tiriri. The alarm went off. I got out of bed, rubbing my eyes. After taking a shower, I took the milk out of the refrigerator, poured it into the bowl, and then took the cereal out of the cupboard and started eating it. Normally, I wouldn’t have done this.

‘Eat this while I’m away.’ It was the cereal that Ah-young had bought for me. While I was eating cereal, I picked up my cell phone for a while and texted Ah-young, who was on the other side of the globe. -How are you? I miss you.-

And for about ten seconds, I looked at it. Seeing that the number “1” next to the letter was not erased, it seemed that she was sleeping or driving.

‘Where is she now?’

Ah-young was on a transcontinental trip with her best friend Sarah, like Thelma and Louise, from the east to the west of the United States. Every time she left one town, the time difference changed, so it was hard to tell what time she was at now.

‘She’ll reply when she sees my text.’

After a quick meal, I brushed my teeth and put on my clothes, and arranged my head. Wi Yi-ying, just in time, the phone rang. I got it, “Yes. I’ll come out now.”

——

After I got ready to go to work, I went out of the apartment. In the hallway of my apartment stood a 190-centimeter-tall giant, Jang Geun.

He looked at me and greeted me, “There’s nothing wrong, boss.”

I gave Jang Geun a pat on the shoulder, “Yes. Good job.” I took the elevator with him.

When I arrived at the underground parking lot, Secretary Seo was waiting for me with the engine running. “Are you ready?”

“Good morning.”

After I got in the back seat, Jang Geun looked around from up there and then got in the passenger seat.

“I’ll leave then.”

Secretary Seo drove out of our parking lot. In the meantime, Jang Geun kept looking around. Watching him do his job, I turned to my cell phone. I didn’t need to check if anyone was watching me or if any car was following me.

‘It was good to hire him.’ A week after hiring Jang Geun, three of us were going to work together. I might behave fastidiously, but I was going to do this for a month, until Tak Joon-gi was behind bars. Of course, all this was done under the assumption that the Crow was doing a good job. If he were to squint his eyes, and say, “I’m sorry. I failed to collect the information you requested,” all would be for naught. I might have to fight a long battle with Tak Joon-gi, constantly gripped by anxiety. Only if he was successful would my attack be possible.

‘I hope he’s doing well…’ Instead, I had almost perfected my defense. I’d hired Jang Geun, and I’d already blocked all attacks that would come based on the future news.

Upon entering the company, I called in Vice President Jang and confirmed, “How is everything about what I told you going?”

Jang bowed his head and said, “I’ve prepared everything you said, boss. Just give me the order.”

I went into the president’s office with a nod. The showdown would take place two weeks from now.

————————–

I watched HTS with my arms crossed; to be precise, I watched the stock window of Blue E&M. ‘Normal trading volume. No unusual buying agents, no selling agents…’ I peeped at the clock with a slightly sleepy eye. It was 11:30 a.m. on August 21, and the day of the showdown had finally come… but it was quiet.

‘There’s supposed to be a sell-off today.’ After I saw on the news 12 Weeks After, Ahn Yong-kyun, president of the company, had announced on Saturday that he had sold his shares. Under a related law, the first major shareholder was required to make public his shares as soon as they were sold, while another major shareholder was required to make a public announcement within five days. In short, if he sold his shares, he should clean up his shares from today. But the stock window was quiet, as if nothing happened, but I was still sure.

‘Well… let’s wait a little longer. The correction news has not arrived yet. The deadline for correction news is one month before or after the incident. So, as soon as there’s a change in the news within a month, there’s correction news. The news was reported to me about twenty-four days ago, so if the future changes, there must be correction news.’

‘Yes, more than that…’ I checked how much the volume of the short stock sale had increased recently. The volume of the short stock sale, which had been increasing slowly since the beginning of the month, had been increasing quite recently. The picture fitted perfectly enough to impede normal stock price rises.

‘Why doesn’t this guy change his ways… After starting a short stock sale, he created bad news and dragged down the stock price. From Go-young Food to Jinyang Development and this one, they were all the same pattern. It was natural for stockpickers to have a chance to earn money according to the rise and fall of the stock price, but the point was that I’d already figured it out.

‘If I know where to come in, it’s easy to use that power against them, like judo.’

I suddenly recalled the description that the Customer Service had used when describing the Master Crow: He would know where you’re going to grab him…

It was something magical, but it was good anyway. All I had to do was to wait for his subordinate, Crow, to do a good job.

Then, suddenly, the stock price of Blue E&M started to fall, because of the bomb that went off somewhere. ‘Yes, he is moving.’

On the surface, it looked like a tired ant had fallen out of the short stock sale, but knowing the background, it seemed to me that CEO Ahn Yong-kyun, who was working with Tak Joon-gi, was selling his shares. It might be 99%. What was unique about this case was that the company’s CEO, Ahn Yong-kyun, was holding his hand.

They had done the same thing during the last Bisang Construction. When they were working the stock, they usually joined hands with representatives, or at least they implicitly allowed them to participate. I was the de facto majority shareholder of Blue E&M now, but as CEO Ahn Yong-kyun was working instead, that was why they seemed to hold hands; the two joined hands and would fuck me up and take my money.

‘I don’t know why he made that decision, but… he didn’t pick the right owner to wag his tail in front of.’ Of course, he thought otherwise. Invictus Investment was still an emerging company, although it had recently grown rapidly. In his eyes, the name Suyeon, which had been one of the pillars of the Korean economy for fifty years, must have been looked bigger than the new rookie. It wouldn’t be long before he realized his choice was wrong.

I watched the stock window and checked the stock price to be pushed. I picked up the phone and directly called Vice President Jang.

“Vice President Jang, as I said, secure our stake in Blue E&M.”

“Yes, boss.”

‘Stock manipulators usually want to paint their own way. To raise, lower, and repeat it, they make individual investors uneasy, greedy, and drive them into hell. But this time it will be different. Blue E&M is my company, my playground, although I don’t manage it myself. I won’t allow them to play with fire here, even if he is the founder of this company.’

——————————

On August 25th, I left the president’s office.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, boss.”

Standing behind me, Secretary Seo and my bodyguard Jang Geun followed me. On the way, Secretary Seo made a phone call, “Yes. I’m Seo Ji Hoon, secretary of CEO Han Sang Hoon of Invictus Investment. Yes. The CEO said he’s visiting the company today. Yes. Oh, no big deal. He’s just coming to get a report.”

Secretary Seo said so, but Ahn Yong-kyun, who heard it, must be distracted. He’d already sold out his shares, but he suddenly heard that the owner was coming. The owner usually didn’t even go to work at his own company.

————————–

As expected, he asked, “… What brings CEO Han here?” His face was a little pale.

I spoke to him, “No, I was passing by, and I’d like to say hello.”

“Yes, I see.” He uttered a slightly reassuring remark, but all the anxiety didn’t seem to go away.

‘Huh, it seems like a guilty conscience needs no accuser.’ I went around the company once, thinking about it.

In the meantime, Blue E&M’s major directors came to me and bowed their heads.

“It’s been a long time, CEO Han. What brings you here?”

“This is Kim Seok-hyun, the financial director. Do you remember me?”

I’d never showed my face before, but it revealed who the real owner of this place was. I looked at them and said to President Ahn Yong-kyun, “Oh, while I’m here, I’ll talk to the directors. I’d like to talk with you about the current situation.”

“Ah… Yes.”

I sat on one side of the conference room like a boss who had come out for a random check. The other directors rushed in and sat down. They were not too many, as it was a small company.

I told them, “Nice to meet you, Blue E&M directors. I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to you all first. We’ve almost doubled our revenue in a year since we invested in Blue E&M, even though we’ve been a little slow lately.”

I glanced at Ahn Yong-kyun when I said, “even though we’ve been a little slow lately.”

Ahn Yong-kyun, who had caused the stock price to slow down for a few days, quickly rolled his eyes to the left and right. He looked anxious about what I was going to say.

I kept going on and on, leaving him alone, “The Idol Management 108 seems to be going well. The ratings are good and the Idol support is good… President Kwon Oh Hyuk of OH Entertainment is also satisfied. I don’t know if I said it myself, but I also appreciate your efforts.”

“Don’t mention it…” They were at a loss on how to answer my compliments.

Here I brought up the subject, “And the next project… My Big Television.”

‘My Big Television is the first big project of Sapphire TV, created by connecting with one of the comprehensive channels. It is a format in which celebrities are invited and send private broadcasts through Sapphire TV. Here, famous BJs from SapphireTV will also join in. The program will provide fresh content, while Sapphire TV provides platforms and BJs. That is the agreement.’

“I think this is one of the most important things to do with the future of Sapphire TV… Did you get the BJ list?”

One director answered me quickly, “Yes, CEO Han.”

“Please show me the list.”

“Yes, sir.” He lowered his head, went out of the meeting room like a shot, and came back with a piece of paper.

I accepted it. There was the ID at the top: his real name was Jung Chil-yeon, known as BJ Kippa. A week from now, during a live broadcast with a girl group, and when girl group fans as well as other viewers were gathered, he would make a big problem that I didn’t even want to talk about. So, the company’s operations would be paralyzed for a while, there would be a strong sanction from the Korea Communications Standards Commission, and the human nuclear bomb would cost the company tens of millions of dollars of total market capital.

I held it with one hand, snapped the index finger of my other hand and said, “Isn’t this BJ Kippa… a little bit of a problem?”